Bath student Samantha Murray defied the weight of history on her shoulders to continue Britain’s brilliant record in modern pentathlon by winning silver at Greenwich Park last night.

British athletes had won four medals at three Olympics since the women’s competition was introduced to the programme in 2000, most recently Heather Fell’s silver in Beijing four years ago.

Fell did not make the team this time round and the mantle passed to Murray and world champion Mhairi Spence, and it was the 22-year-old University of Bath French and Politics student who stepped up to the plate.

Murray went into the final event, the combined run and shoot, in fourth place and was still outside the medals after the first round of shooting.

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But she left the range for the second time in third place and then overhauled Yane Marques of Brazil at the start of the final one kilometre lap before being roared home.

The final gold of the Olympics went to Lithuania’s Laura Asadauskaite, who finished some way ahead of Murray, while Marques hung on to take bronze.

Murray, who took the hosts’ medal tally to a remarkable 65, admitted Britain’s success in the sport had been on her mind.

She said: “That was the biggest thing. When you think since Sydney we’ve always won a medal, it’s like, right, no pressure then, you’ve got to go and win a medal. It’s really tough.

“Pentathlon isn’t a straight line that you have to run down, there’s uncontrollables and you’ve got to deal with the unexpected. You’ve got to have a tough brain and a tough mind.”

It did not look like there would be a happy ending for Murray when she lost her first seven bouts of fencing in the Copper Box this morning, but she turned things around to finish with a respectable 18 wins from 35 fights.

The 22-year-old is a brilliant swimmer and her time for the 200 metres freestyle was the second fastest of the day, lifting her to third overall.

The action then moved to Greenwich Park for the show jumping, which can be unpredictable as the athletes draw random horses, and Murray had a few dramas but her score of 1140 was enough to keep her right in contention.

The Lancastrian hailed the contribution of the huge crowd, saying: “I’m so proud that I gave the crowd something because they were fantastic all day and it was a complete privilege to compete in front of that many people.

“The stadium erupted when I came in every time and my legs just picked up. I kind of wish now there was more to run because I was enjoying myself so much.

“It was an amazing race. It is a shame I didn’t get gold, I shot myself in the foot because fencing is my weakest discipline and I started the day really badly, but I had to pull through and grit my teeth.”

With only two athletes allowed to compete for each country, it was a major challenge just to qualify for the British team, and at the start of the year Murray certainly was not in pole position.

Indeed, in February she was ranked 78th in the world but a series of brilliant results, including winning bronze at the World Championships in Rome in May, sealed her spot.

Murray was thrilled she could share the moment with her friends and family, and she added: “My mum was in tears, she couldn’t believe it, my grandma as well.

“I’m just so happy I’ve done this for all those people who’ve stuck by me and supported me because people have sacrificed a lot and put up with a lot for me to get here. I’m so glad I can give something back.”

There were tears of a different sort for Spence, who just missed out on a place in the team in Beijing four years ago and went into the competition with hopes of matching her brilliant World Championships victory.

But the 26-year-old did not fence as well as she usually does and her hopes were really scuppered by a difficult horse before a problem with the target on the first round of shooting sealed her fate. Bath-based Spence eventually came home in 21st place, and she said: “I was a bit unlucky with my horse draw today but that’s the way pentathlon goes.

“It’s not often a horse gets the better of me but he definitely did. I was partially out of control, I was just pointing and hoping for the best because there was nothing I could do.

“Everything just kind of went wrong today. Obviously I’m gutted because I proved a couple of months ago that I’m good enough to stand on the podium but not today. The sport definitely knows how to break your spirit sometimes.

“The crowd were amazing, I just feel a little embarrassed and disappointed that I couldn’t put on a better show for them because they deserved that. I don’t feel much like a world champion right now.”